Lasker-Schüler, Else

German poet, short-story writer, playwright, and novelist of the early 20th century.

Of Jewish parentage, Schüler settled in Berlin after her marriage to the physician
Berthold Lasker in 1894 (divorced 1903). In Berlin she frequented avant-garde literary
circles, and her lyric poems and short stories began appearing in periodicals. Her
second marriage (1901-11) was to Herwarth Walden, the editor of a leading
Expressionist journal. Her first book, a poetry collection entitled Styx (1902), was
followed by Meine Wunder (1911; "My Miracles"), Hebräische Balladen (1913;
"Hebrew Ballads"), and several other volumes of lyric poetry. Her other important
works are the play Die Wupper (1909), the autobiographical novel Mein Herz (1912;
"My Heart"), and the short stories collected in Der Prinz von Theben (1914; "The
Prince of Thebes") and Der Wunderrabbiner von Barcelona (1921; "The Wonder
Rabbi of Barcelona"). She emigrated to Switzerland in 1933 after the Nazis came to
power in Germany, and in 1940 she resettled in Jerusalem in Palestine. She had always
led an eccentric and unpredictable life, and she spent her last years in poverty.

Lasker-Schüler's poems exploit a rich vein of fantasy and symbolism and alternate
between pathos and ecstasy in their intensely personal evocation of her childhood and
parents, romantic passion, art, religion, and other themes. Many of her short stories
reinterpret Arabian nights tales in a mode of modern fantasy that is rich with visual
images. Though rich in atmosphere and symbolism, her stories tend to have a weak
narrative focus and little or no plot. Lasker-Schüler's reputation as an important
German lyric poet of the early 20th century is assured, however.